Also, I hope you realize I was just joking and not wishing actual harm upon you. We don't know each other in person but I quite like you, and appreciate that you're always trying to make this forum a pleasant environment for everyone.

no prob

also I'm hoping Ferrara is still doing that movie with Nicolas Cage. Indiewire says the movie is in production but nothing about The Cage.

An Irish documentary about veteran, Italian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, who began a lifelong battle against the mafia that poisoned and corrupted her home country, all illustrated by her own photographs and clips of old Italian movies. Or so it starts out, later it develops more into a depiction of the mafia warfare unfolding in front of her lens, and the nostalgia-inducing movie clips are replaced with more impersonal news reels.

Shooting the Mafia was interesting but also a bit slight. Maybe 90 minutes wasn’t enough for such a vast subject matter, spanning several decades. Letizia Battaglia is a fascinating woman, and seeing her photographs projected on a giant screen is the highlight of this documentary, but when we leave her story and her very personal account of the historical events, the entire thing gets too formal, only scratching the surface of what happened. Concentrates too much on the bigger picture, while Letizia's story felt so intimate, giving us a sense of what it was actually like living in that country at that exact moment. Therefore, the movie loses its entire sense of personality and becomes something that would play on Discovery Channel on two in the afternoon. We end up with more admiration for the interviewee rather than gaining actual insight.

Sorry for not really keeping this thread updated. I have a hard time writing about several titles I saw at the festival since my feelings about most of them seem to be pretty neutral. Not bad, not good, just right in the middle. Therefore I shall not review every movie individually, as I originally planted, but I will instead highlight certain films that I do find the words for.

Several critics compared Zombi Child to I Walked with a Zombie, a horror classic from 1943 produced by the legendary Val Lewton. That is one of my favorite movies of all time, so understandably, such a comparison got my hopes really high. But in reality, the only thing they have in common is that they’re both old-fashioned, pre-Romero zombie stories, rooted in race, voodoo and colonialism.

The movie opens in Haiti, 1962, where a man, considered dead at the time but we later learned he was still alive, is buried, but eventually brought back to the living world, only to work as a slave on the sugarcane fields. 55 years in later, a young woman from Haitian descent named Mélissa (Wislanda Louimat) joins the prestigious Légion d’Honneur boarding school in France. She quickly befriends a couple of young rich girls, who have their own literary sorority club, which is just an excuse to sneak out of their dorms and secretly drink liquor by candlelight. Her gateway into this clique is Fanny (Louis Labeque), who is completely transfixed by a brief romance she had last summer, like only a teenager with little experience in that department can. When Mélissa slowly starts opening up about her family’s history, Fanny’s dream world gets shattered and leaves her disillusioned, while the movie occasionally cuts back to enslaved ‘zombi’, whose fate is intertwined with that of our main protagonists, in a way that will come to no surprise of anyone who has seen more than 5 movies in their life.

The main attraction of this movie is that it’s the new offspring by notorious French director Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, Saint Laurent), though I have not seen any of his prior work. He vaguely wrestles with concepts like class and race in this movie, in ways that feel almost uninspired, like in a rather flagrant moment for example, somewhere in the opening 20 minutes, where an unassuming teacher explains the entire theme of the movie during his lecture. The political implications here only seem to exist in the abstract. Sometimes the movie feels very much like a middle-aged man’s impersonation of what he thinks teenage girls nowadays are like (like one of them giving an entire presentation about Rihanna for their English class) but that is not to say those are completely unbelievable. Like whenever one of the teenagers is alone or has to wait for more than a second, they immediately pick up their phone, which I as a teenager myself can confirm is incredibly accurate. There is a restlessness with this current generation that is slowly taking over people in their thirties and forties as well, where everything has to go quicker, more efficient and as painless as possible. At one point, when talking about how zombies used to be far slower in movies, a character proclaims “Everything is faster nowadays, zombies too”.

But this casual attempt at humor, a brief glimpse of levity, gives the movie a sense of personality that it is often lacking. Zombi Child is a slow, very restrained film, which is mostly focused on character moments, while at the same time keeping the viewer at a distance. These last few years we’ve had several arthouse pictures, mostly coming out of the department of world cinema, that casually flirted with the horror genre (like Personal Shopper or Raw, both 2016 movies that I loved by the way) but never actually became one of them. Zombi Child seems to take the same route as those movies, safely dipping its toe into the water, until in the finale, it abruptly decides to properly dive in... and then just end all of a sudden, like there is a reel or two missing.
Bonello’s latest might not be a particularly great movies, nor one that should be allowed to be mentioned along a legit classic like I Walked With a Zombie, but it definitely left me thinking, and gave me material to write about.

I saw some groovy movies on the big screen the last few days. Some quick write-ups:

Footlight Parade (1933) Feels more like a screwball comedy rather than a musical for most of its running time, but than it goes all out in the finale. I've heard so many people talk about that swimming pool number before but nothing could prepare me for watching the actual thing. Has to be seen to be believed. It's almost a shame that you still have another musical sequence after that. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is great to see James Cagney take the stage, but it can't beat that master sequence that came prior. This was my first James Cagney movie and you totally understand why this man was such a huge star. Such a powerful presence, for such a rather short guy.
You know you've got a great musical if people are humming the songs when they leave the theater.

After Hours (1985) A rewatch, but the first time on the big screen. Such a sad, hilarious, electric rollercoaster of a movie. Starring Griffin Dunne as the Nice Guy™, who leaves his natural habit and tries to hook up with a girl in Soho, but once things become weirder and weirder, his good manners quickly go out of the window. One of the best "bad night" movies ever made.
You can clearly see how the entire cast and crew got so jacked up while filming it, the energy almost jumps out of the screen.

Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973) A fantastic symphony consisting out of great scenes, one after the other. At the start, you think this will be a movie about the sympathetic, free spirited Billy The Kid (Kris Kristofferson) getting unfairly murdered by the "sell-out", Pat Garrett (James Coburn), but it quickly becomes clear neither these guys are worthy of our sympathy. Where most westerns feature some kind of "code of honor", here people just get shot in the back like it is no big deal. Garrett and The Kid might not want to kill each other, but they sure don't have a problem with letting everyone around them die because of their stubbornness.

Prime Cut (1972) It has some good scenes, but it is also kind of a dissapointment, like a lot of it felt clunky and not really thought through. Which is sad, because I really was prepared to love this. Could make for an interesting remake, but than again, are there really any movie stars out there who could compete with Lee Marvin? Michael Shannon perhaps, but that's a big maybe.

After Hours (1985) A rewatch, but the first time on the big screen. Such a sad, hilarious, electric rollercoaster of a movie. Starring Griffin Dunne as the Nice Guy™, who leaves his natural habit and tries to hook up with a girl in Soho, but once things become weirder and weirder, his good manners quickly go out of the window. One of the best "bad night" movies ever made.
You can clearly see how the entire cast and crew got so jacked up while filming it, the energy almost jumps out of the screen.

I love this movie, it is actually my favorite Scorsese, but also just one of my favorite movies.

So I only arrived after the edit, so I don't know exactly what's up. But you're articulate, curious, and intelligent. I have confidence that you will find your way through whatever's getting you down. And there are plenty of people who've navigated their late teens/early 20s who would be more than happy to give you advice via PM if you don't want to share publicly.

Slent, you need to look into university options. You've got the head and the hands. I wish you the best of luck.

I actually just applied for film school and will be taking an admission test at the end of August.
The problem is that I'm homeschooled and I still have a few exams to go before I can finish high school. I have only three courses left (French, German and math) but sadly you can't take exams during summer. I hope we can arrange something with the school that I can already start there before having finished all my courses. I know other people have done the same.

So I only arrived after the edit, so I don't know exactly what's up. But you're articulate, curious, and intelligent. I have confidence that you will find your way through whatever's getting you down. And there are plenty of people who've navigated their late teens/early 20s who would be more than happy to give you advice via PM if you don't want to share publicly.

Thank you so much, Takoma. I hope that if I can go to college next semester, I'll finally get out of the unlivable situation I am in now. I'm currently at my grandparents' place, so that will give me some peace for the coming days.

A small-town kid that nobody believes in teams up with an experienced, older man that teaches him the ways of a profession that the vast majority wrongfully considers to be outdated. You could almost say this is the Spaghetti Western equivalent of A New Hope, though Day of Anger obviously came out a decade before the space opera classic and this kind of set-up has been used for centuries in countless myths and stories, and for a good reason, because done well, they can be extremely entertaining.

Lee Van Cleef plays the Obi-Wan type mentor figure in this scenario (though he is closer to Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins if we're being honest) against Giuliano Gemma's Luke like protegé. As is the problem with most Van Cleef spaghetti westerns where his co-star isn't Clint Eastwood, the rest of the cast pales in comparison to him (see also Death Rides A Horse, another movie I just saw recently that might be even better than this one). Van Cleef is so menacing, both calculated and unpredictable. Whenever he raises his nostrils just a little, you know people are going to die. But in this one he manages to combine that with a certain sense of kindness and perhaps even merciful, though you are never certain of how long that will last. It is a perfect mixture of his wise, fatherly Colonel Mortimer from For a Few Dollars More and the ruthless, greedy Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

You also have an amazing duel scene between Van Cleef and a hired assassin, staged as a classic, medieval game of joust, only this version is played with a rifle instead of a lance. The sequence ends as suddenly as it appeared, but it adds a nice extra flavor to an already delicious dish of spaghetti.

I love Takeshi Kitano's performance in this. A man so dead inside, he just spends his time waiting for his body to catch up with his soul. Nothing matters, revenge merely seems like a form of courtesy. You might just try and have some fun in the meantime, no?

For people who were wondering how it is going with me right now: it looks promising. I'm getting a job, it seems like I'm getting my own place (my mother kicked me out, my father doesn't want to take care of me, but they're both willing to help out with the rent) and if everything goes well, I might start college in February. So I still have some time left to finish my last courses of high school and sort my life out. It will be a big change to live on my own, but hey, I can't stay with my grandparents forever.

For people who were wondering how it is going with me right now: it looks promising. I'm getting a job, it seems like I'm getting my own place (my mother kicked me out, my father doesn't want to take care of me, but they're both willing to help out with the rent) and if everything goes well, I might start college in February. So I still have some time left to finish my last courses of high school and sort my life out. It will be a big change to live on my own, but hey, I can't stay with my grandparents forever.

I'm happy for you. I'm sure living on your own will be a learning, but liberating, experience for you. It's not easy, but I'm sure you'll make it.

Thanks, both of you.
Living on my own will be a big change, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it. And I'm also really looking forward to go to college, something I wasn't even sure would still be possible for a while.

For people who were wondering how it is going with me right now: it looks promising. I'm getting a job, it seems like I'm getting my own place (my mother kicked me out, my father doesn't want to take care of me, but they're both willing to help out with the rent) and if everything goes well, I might start college in February. So I still have some time left to finish my last courses of high school and sort my life out. It will be a big change to live on my own, but hey, I can't stay with my grandparents forever.

That sounds really positive, man, probably a little scary but a really, really good step. I wish you the best, man.

Caliber 9 tells the story of Ugo Piazzi (Gastone Moschin, who feels like the lovechild of Jason Statham and Dean Norris), an ex-mobster who just got released out of prison. Everyone, gangsters and police alike, are certain he is in the possession of 300,000 dollars that he supposedly stole from his former employer, a crime syndicate boss named Mikado. He himself persists he has nothing to do with it.

The real star of this movie though is Mario Adorf as Rocco Musco, who has the acting abilities of Jon Polito, only with the dopey handsome looks of someone like Bruce Campbell. He is such a schmuck while at the same time still have a threatening presence because he is stupid and violent enough to fuck everything up for everyone around.

The movie itself, while a lot of fun, is often hindered by plotpoints and ideas that are brought up but never really fleshed. Ugo's girlfriend, night club dancer Nelly (Barbara Bouchet) brings a certain tenderness to the film, showing us a different side from Ugo than what we had seen before, but then kinda disappears from the film until the very end. But even more distracting is the storyline between the two police inspectors, the right-wing Commissioner played by Frank Wolff, who has a notable fixation with our protagonist, and the new-to-town, left-wing progressive Mercuri (played by Luigi Pistilli, an actor who every fan of spaghetti westerns will know) who seemingly only exists to act as a mouthpiece for the director (or at least I assume so) and then is send away without having the opportunity to make some real contributions to the plot. Which is sad because his existence promised a really interesting alternate direction for the course of the story, that is kind of left abandoned for something more traditional.

Occasionally I can have a problem with the way Hitchcock portrays romance in his movies. They can be really interesting if there is some darked edge to them, like in Vertigo or Rebecca, but when they're supposed to be healthy, they can be quite unbelievable or even boring. Rear Window is an otherwise perfect thriller that is sadly centered around a dull relationship drama between the unnaturally beautiful Grace Kelly and the 21-years older James Stewart, who is constantly complaining that she is 'not adventurous enough' for him, while the audience is sitting there thinking "dude, that is fucking Grace Kelly, who are you to refuse her".

The Man Who Knew Too Much shows me another variation of the Hitchcock romance I wasn't yet familiar with: the married couple. James Stewart and Doris Day (this time "only" 14 years younger than her supposed husband) feel like an actual couple that has been together for a very long time, knows each other inside out, and have enough annoyances about each other to spoil many dinner dates. They have their own way of communicating, have a shared responsibility (their son) and they manage to become a better version of themselves as a pair. Which is why the movie becomes notably less interesting whenever they split up. Stewart and Day are so charming together, a doctor and singer forced by circumstances to become Nick and Nora for a second, they are the main appeal of this otherwise kind of middle-of-the-road Hitchcock vehicle.

Occasionally I can have a problem with the way Hitchcock portrays romance in his movies. They can be really interesting if there is some darked edge to them, like in Vertigo or Rebecca, but when they're supposed to be healthy, they can be quite unbelievable or even boring. Rear Window is an otherwise perfect thriller that is sadly centered around a dull relationship drama between the unnaturally beautiful Grace Kelly and the 21-years older James Stewart, who is constantly complaining that she is 'not adventurous enough' for him, while the audience is sitting there thinking "dude, that is fucking Grace Kelly, who are you to refuse her".

The Man Who Knew Too Much shows me another variation of the Hitchcock romance I wasn't yet familiar with: the married couple. James Stewart and Doris Day (this time "only" 14 years younger than her supposed husband) feel like an actual couple that has been together for a very long time, knows each other inside out, and have enough annoyances about each other to spoil many dinner dates. They have their own way of communicating, have a shared responsibility (their son) and they manage to become a better version of themselves as a pair. Which is why the movie becomes notably less interesting whenever they split up. Stewart and Day are so charming together, a doctor and singer forced by circumstances to become Nick and Nora for a second, they are the main appeal of this otherwise kind of middle-of-the-road Hitchcock vehicle.

Have you seen the original? I haven't seen the remake, but enjoyed the original's pace, and Peter Lorre is always a treat.

This is pretty much the movie I wanted Cobra (1986) to be. Fever dream violence in a sticky, neon-lit Bangkok. Starts out with a guy lighting his cigarette with his thumb and the movie only becomes weirder from there. There is also a really cute dog.

Slow, mature but grand drama about an actress struggling with getting older and the play that she's currently in which reflects that. Gena Rowlands as Myrtle is outstanding, a woman who has filtered herself through so many different characters she has no real sense of who she actually is anymore. Whenever she goes on stage, the line between reality and fiction starts to blur, and the outcome is something completely different every time. A fantastic ode to the profession of acting and the art of theater.